South Mediterranean University and Explorance Commence Higher and Business Education Curriculum Evaluations Partnership

Montreal, Quebec – July 2025 – South Mediterranean University (SMU), a private university in Tunisia pioneering international education with a focus on offering prestigious international diplomas, has appointed Explorance to develop its curriculum evaluations in SMU’s triple accredited Mediterranean School of Business (MSB) and Mediterranean Institute of Technology (MedTech).

Beginning in June, Explorance Blue is being implemented to replace a previously manual approach to evaluations, which saw institutional academic planning teams “process the data, analyse the data, and then distribute it to different stakeholders”. Mehdi Zahaf, Associate Dean for Accreditation and Head of the Academic Planning Unit at MSB, revealed it would take “two to three months on average to get those reports out.”

Mehdi said: “Having seen how Explorance works with HEC Montréal we began conversations with CEO Samer Saab, and following demonstrations from their team it was an easy decision to sign with them. Our objectives are very clear: to automate several processes so we do not have to collect data, move it from one place to another place, run the statistics, get the reports, and customise them. That is a lot of time for a three-person team, which has a bigger remit.

“The other main benefit is that Explorance Blue can deliver insights to different stakeholders at a university level. For example, directors will access certain types of data for a programme, discipline leads and coordinators can receive other information, and managers will get their targeted reports. With over 100 evaluations in MSB alone, operating within real time is a crucial piece in the whole project because we would like to make very quick decisions in terms of our curriculum review, around adding and removing courses.”

“We see this as more than a three-year partnership, it is a long-term relationship, but for year one we are solely focusing on the evaluations related directly to the curriculum, so that is for three stakeholder groups: students, employers, and parents.”

Whilst this will primarily be for mid-term evaluations within undergraduate programmes, Mehdi added that Explorance Blue would also be used for staff evaluations, and potentially others, as SMU moves towards a “fully-fledged solution”.

“We are really excited about this partnership, increasing our response rates (reaching a minimum 50%) and having greater representation across all profiles within a class, and getting more engagement from students so they see the value of what we are doing,” he explained. “This is important for Faculty because evaluations are used for promotions and applying for research grants. Automating the process – that is really important – it has been taking us too long to do these operational things. This will free up my team’s time for more strategy and analysis.”

For MSB, continuous development in program evaluations is critical for retaining its prestigious AMBA, AACSB, and EFMD accreditations, Mehdi said. Tunisia’s Ministry of Higher Education Scientific Research, to whom SMU reports annually, also has an interest in this area.

“Regardless of the project, whether this one with Explorance or any other, for us the most important thing is to learn, and to have that attitude of listening and feeding back to each other,” Mehdi said. “We would rather start small, master everything over time, and then expand to other activities. For us, this is a win-win situation. I am really looking forward to working with Explorance, and we are excited about the direction this will take.”

John Atherton, VP Sales EMEA at Explorance, commented: “We are delighted to be working with SMU, developing our presence in Tunisia, and supporting both MSB and MedTech directly. In the case of MSB, we support a number of business schools and university-based business and management faculties to improve teaching and learning through the way they derive, analyse and respond to student feedback. There is a wide cross-section of expertise we can draw on, from all over the world, on business and management education – and we are proud to support the development of this community.”

About South Mediterranean University

Nestled in the heart of Tunis, Tunisia, South Mediterranean University (SMU) is a pioneering institution shaping the next generation of global leaders in North Africa. Established in 2002, SMU is home to the Mediterranean School of Business (MSB) and the Mediterranean Institute of Technology (MedTech), offering world-class programs taught in English and designed to meet international standards. With a strong emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship, and cross-cultural collaboration, SMU provides a transformative education experience that prepares students for success in today’s interconnected world.

Learn more at www.smu.tn.

About Explorance

Explorance empowers organizations with next-generation feedback analytics to accelerate the insight-to-action cycle, encouraging the philosophy of “Feedback for the brave” to drive purpose, impact, and growth.       

Bringing 20 years of expertise, Explorance, a member of the World Economic Forum and a trusted partner for 35% of Fortune 100 companies and 25% of the world’s top higher education institutions, has influenced over 25 million individuals with award-winning solutions like Blue, Metrics That Matter (MTM), and MLY.

Visit explorance.com or connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X.